Controversy kept Caruana out of Junior Gold tournament

Nick Caruana qualified for the Junior Gold Championship bowling tournament, but the Sachem East star was deemed ineligible to compete in it this week because, technically, he hadn't qualified.

In a stern and somewhat controversial ruling, the United States Bowling Congress discounted the Dec. 1 Long Island Youth Bowling tournament in Patchogue - through which Caruana and former Chaminade standout Andrew Fenn qualified - determining the tournament wasn't certified and that its conductor already had been suspended by the USBC.

"I'm annoyed," said Caruana. The 16-year-old was named Newsday's L.I. Bowler of the Year in April after breaking the Suffolk single-season high school record with a 236.33 average. The tournament in question was unrelated to scholastic competition. "Working hard to prepare for the tournament and then being told I can't go because of something out of my control is extremely frustrating."

Junior Gold is a national tournament that hosts more than 2,000 young bowlers - up to age 20 - and awards $125,000 in scholarships and serves as a showcase for Team USA's junior team. Jacob Klein (East Islip), Brandon Soedarmasto (Division), Kelly Skalacki (Middle Country) and Rebecca Gotterbarn (Sewanhaka District) were among a slew of Long Island's elite teenage bowlers who traveled to Buffalo and competed in Junior Gold, which ran July 12-18. They had qualified through other LIYB tournaments.

In mid-June, Caruana still hadn't gotten the paperwork and formal invitation his peers received, his mother Lauren Caruana said, and that is when they contacted USBC.

"None of the required paperwork to certify that (Dec. 1) tournament was ever submitted," said USBC executive director Chad Murphy, who is based in Texas. "USBC has no record of the event, so from our perspective as a national governing body, it didn't happen."

In addition, the USBC had suspended the tournament's conductor, Kenny Tyrrell, at the end of November for an undisclosed infraction that occurred in 2013. According to USBC policy, Murphy said, "details of individual suspensions" aren't to be divulged.

"Nick bowled in December, so if we had known earlier that something was wrong, he could've gone to any number of other qualifying tournaments [before the summer]," Lauren Caruana said. "Kenny has run it for nine years. Why would I have questioned his standing? We didn't hear about this until June."

Caruana's parents appealed to several USBC officials, but received similar responses, they said.

"They just won't bend," Lauren Caruana said. "We accept their decision and we're not fighting it, but I think it's 100 percent wrong. This whole thing is a mess and they had an opportunity to fix it, but they decided not to. The kids are the ones being hurt in this when they've done nothing wrong."

Tyrrell has expressed remorse and said he will refund the participants' $60 entry fee, but he insisted he followed the usual protocol in organizing the tournament and was unaware of his suspension until months later.

"I knew I was going to be suspended, but I never received anything [in November] to inform me that I officially was," he said. "They said they sent me a letter but I didn't receive it. I didn't know, so I registered for the tournament online and the system didn't kick back or say it wasn't legal."

Murphy said Tyrrell's suspension "had been in process for some time and he was notified" when it became official at the end of November.

"If I knew I was suspended, I wouldn't have run the tournament," Tyrrell said. "That's not the kind of person I am." He said he pleaded with USBC on behalf of Caruana and Fenn last month, but to no avail. "I made a mistake last year and I should be punished, and I'm sorry. But why punish the kids for something that wasn't their fault at all?"

Regardless, that he said-he said exchange matters little to Nick Caruana, who believes he was robbed of an opportunity to showcase his skills on a grand stage for college coaches as he enters the 11th grade.

"There isn't another tournament as big as Junior Gold and I've never been," Caruana said. "It's not like I can't go in the future, but I put in a lot of work, bowling seven days a week to qualify, only to have it taken away from me."

The Caruanas and Tyrrell suggested a fair solution, given the circumstances, would have been to make an exception and allow the disqualified qualifiers entry to Junior Gold. The USBC rejected that, though, considering it a compromise of the tournament's integrity.

"Our hearts go out to the kids...and I share the families' sadness," Murphy said, "but we cannot simply break the rules that govern the sport and grant qualification for a national championship from a qualifier we have no record of. The rules are very clear in this situation and are in place to protect all the athletes and ensure the legitimacy of the qualifiers."